Shanks for the memories

My wonderful parents bought me a slow cooker for Christmas - and what better thing to make in a slow cooker than braised lamb shanks? I dug through some boxes to find my notebook from first year Le Cordon Bleu (that's 12 years ago now... holy snapping duck shit, Batman!) and found the recipe for Gigotin d'Agneau Braisee, with thanks to my lecturer Urs. I don't think he'd mind me sharing it, last I heard he'd gone to be a missionary in Africa. True story.

Ingredients:

Lamb shanks (2 per person)

3 x medium carrots

2 x brown onions

1 x small celeriac bulb (half a bunch of celery will do)

6 x garlic cloves

2 x tomatoes

3 x mushrooms

4 x parsley stalks

1.5L stock (lamb is best, beef will do)

1 x bay leaf

olive oil

salt & pepper

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

- Trim shanks of skin, excess fat and sinew.

- Heat a metal roasting pan on the stove top, season shanks with salt and pepper and place in pan with oil. - - Brown on all sides.

- When shanks are browned, put the roasting pan in the oven.

- While the shanks roast, peel the celeriac, carrots and onions and cut in a large dice.

- Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half, quarter the tomatoes and slice the mushrooms.

- Add the root vegetables and the garlic to the roast after 1 hour.

- Stir occasionally, continue roasting until the vegetables take on a light brown colour.

- Add the parsley stalks, mushrooms and tomatoes. Continue roasting until all the liquids have evaporated.

- Transfer all the ingredients to a slow cooker (on high) or a dutch oven with a lid.

- Add half the stock, and reduce until it begins to thicken.

- Glaze the shanks by pouring the liquids through a sieve over the shanks. Repeat another 4 - 5 times as the shanks continue cooking.

- Continue cooking until the meat is soft and beginning to come away from the bone, adding extra stock as needed.

- Remove from the oven, strain juices. Set the shanks aside to rest. Simmer the juices down into a sauce.

- Serve the shanks with buttery mashed potatoes and sauce from the pan juices.

- Nom nom nom.